Mountains

I recently read a book by Richard Paul Evans. It is the second in his series, "The Walk". The epilogue was absolutely beautiful, and I want to share it with you.
It is a little longer than my usual posts, but I loved every word and don't want to leave anything out...

"What my father said about mountains is true. We climb mountains because the valleys are full of cemeteries. The secret of survival is to climb, even in the dark, even when the climb seems pointless. The climb, not the summit, is the thing. And the great don't just climb mountains, they carve them as they go.
Korczak's dream was an impossible one - that one man could sculpt a mountain. I can only imagine the barbs and insults of Korczak's critics, and he had galleries of them. "You're crazy, a fool, you'll never do it," they sang from their low places and half-dug graves. "The statue will never be complete."
But Korczak knew better than to listen to the ghosts in the cemeteries. Every day he climbed his mountain, and with a chisel here, a blast there, he moved tons of stone as his dream emerged from the mountain.
Korczak knew he'd never live to see his work finished, but this was no reason to stop. As he lay dying, he was asked if he was disappointed to not see the monument completed. "No," he said, "you only have to live long enough to inspire others to do great things."
And this he did. As the mountain took form, the masses began to dream too. And they began to move. Today millions come from around the world to see Korczak's mountain, and a professional crew works year-round to move the dream forward. It is no longer a question of if the statue will be completed, only when.
But Korczak's greatest legacy is not a public one, the massive stone mountain that he conquered, but the mountain he conquered in himself-a mountain that he climbed alone-and in this we can all empathize. For there are moments in all lives, great and small, that we must trudge alone our forlorn roads into infinite wilderness, to endure our midnight hours of pain and sorrow - the Gethsemane moments, when we are on our knees or backs, crying out to a universe that seems to have abandoned us.
These are the greatest of moments, where we show our souls. These are our "finest hours." That these moments are given to us is neither accidental nor cruel. Without great mountains we cannot reach great heights. And we were born to reach great heights.
Every one of us is faced with the task equal to Korczak's, one as gorgeously absurd - to chip away at the stone of our own spirits, creating a monument, our task will not be completed in our lifetime. And in the end we will find that we were never sculpting alone.
Korczak said, "I tell my children never forget that man is not a complete being in himself. There's something greater than he that moves him."
I don't honestly know if I'll reach Key West, but I do know that I will never give up. And, when I take my final step, whether or not I made my destination doesn't really matter, because in the end I will be a different man than the one who left Seattle. I was never carving a mountain. I was carving myself."

I am so inspired by this! I want to be a better person.
May we all learn how to use the tools we have been given to carve our lives.
I love you all.
Have a great week!
P.S. To read more about Korczak go to - www.crazyhorsememorial.org